I Think I Know You
by Masaichu
Summary: Ann was never one who liked big change. So she was unprepared when Al left. She was even less prepared when he came back. Sweet Ann x Big Al.


To say that she was nervous would be an understatement.

It would be better to say that Sweet Ann was nervous beyond recognition to the point of wanting to bite her painted fingernails, which she never, _ever_ would resort to doing if she was feeling any other way than she was at this particular moment.

Continuing her trek down the hallway, the curly, blond-haired woman put a hand to her stomach and sighed. There had to be a reason for this sickness in her gut, and she knew exactly what it was.

How could she _not_ know, anyway?

This afternoon, she would be seeing what she had been planning to for weeks on this day. The day when she would meet, or re-meet, the one whom she hadn't see for a few years now.

It wasn't like she couldn't remember him though, oh no. She could remember what he had been like back then when she'd been given the chance to meet her supposed successor.

--

He was just a prototype back then, whom the scientists called Al. Or Big Al, as he was called affectionately for his deep voice.

Ann would admit, his voice wasn't all that great back then, and he looked...Frightening. He'd looked very frightening the first time she had met him, but after just a week of talking to each other, it felt they'd known each other forever.

He was tall, _very_ tall, with a leopard print shirt and long black pants. His hair was black with lots of oil to slick it back into an old looking style

Even so, Al was the only one Ann felt she had any connections with.

They shared the same creation company, PowerFX, just the two of them.

And the stitches across her neck, he'd had the very same kind across his forehead.

Both of them were modeled after artists that humans had loved from days long before, in the sixties and seventies.

Of course, that also meant they shared about the same deal of popularity, despite Al not being released at the time.

The exact amount of time they spent together, she didn't know. But she would never forget the day that the scientists took Al away. Telling her he was 'incomplete' and had to be 'fixed' before his release.

By that, she had assumed he would be back in a few days.

A week passed.

Two weeks.

One month.

One year.

Two years.

Ann never heard a word from Al ever again, and pretty soon the scientists had also stopped talking about fixing him altogether. She knew then that there was only place he could possibly be.

But the very thought of Al's strange yet unique metal body laying in a scrap dump, rusted over and non-functioning...

All of the English Vocaloids seemed sad about his leaving. But Ann took it the hardest. Of any of the Vocaloids, Al was the only one who understood her in ways she thought Vocaloids couldn't ever understand, at least not humanly.

Her tastes in old music, her strange appearance compared to others -which had since been designed differently- and the way she spoke, not to mention her vast love for classic movies...

Now, she was just the single Vocaloid of a single company.

It wasn't fair! Leon and Lola had each other. Prima and Miriam and Sonika, despite the diversity they had, seemed to have good connections as well. Sure, she talked with them and sang with them. But she never actually saw them as 'friends', and she was sure they hadn't seen her as a friend either.

Why was she the one they always left out of things?

Perhaps she was used quite a lot by her fans, more so than Lola, but it wasn't enough to sooth the pain.

She wanted Al back.

_Her _Al.

--

Those wishes seemed like they were being granted after two long years.

Until the news had come of Al's 'update'.

His looks, his voice, perhaps even his memory...

All of them had been altered greatly. He would no longer be the sixties-based, oddball, low singer that Ann had met before.

She was happy for Al, finally being able to have his spotlight, but...Many questions still remained.

_How much had he truly changed?_

_Where had he been all this time?_

_Why hadn't he tried to speak with her?_

_Would he take her rank in the Vocaloid community?_

_Is she considered obsolete now?_

_Will he like her?_

_..._

_Would he remember her?_

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Ann stood silently outside the door, her mind trying to comprehend just what was happening.

On the other side of that door was Al, waiting to meet his 'new partner' of PowerFX. She hated the way she'd been told those words. 'To go meet her new partner.'

He was her _old_ partner. He had always been her partner.

Maybe she hadn't sung with him since that one single duet, but she'd thought of him whenever she sang. She thought of how he'd taught her that even if they looked strange, they could sing just as well as any other Vocaloid, and people would still love them.

That duet had been a long time ago, but...

It's melody came to her mind, and Ann felt herself lamenting.

If Al was really going to come back to her...Then she prayed that he would be just as he were before. Maybe it was cruel of her to wish him to be worse than he was. Maybe even demented.

Which is why she immediately backtracked on her statement.

Heaving a deep sigh, Ann reached for the door handle and twisted it.

Maybe he wouldn't be the Big Al she had met. But Al was Al, and she would be happy for him.

---

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It takes her a long moment to realize the person sitting across the room looking at her is, indeed, Al.

He's changed so dramatically...

His skin is a dark tan, a large contrast from how she remembered him to be almost black before. He has slick brown hair now, changed from the almost flat clump of oily black he'd once possessed.

A red, white and black blazer adorns his body, along with black pants that have a yellow strap on them.

Like Japanese Vocaloids.

The silver necklace on his neck is new as well, but she doesn't even notice. She doesn't believe it.

He looks like them. The Japanese Vocaloids, he looks like one of them and she hates it.

They aren't supposed to look like them, or act like them.

They're supposed to be _different_. _Unique. Something more._

Ann didn't realize he'd gotten up and was walking towards her until a moment later, before she whirled around and attempted to run out of the room. She couldn't stay here, wouldn't stay here.

This wasn't Al, it couldn't be. It couldn't be her Al.

Her foot is out the door, and-

Before she can make her grand escape however, two long arms are around her waist, and someone is leaning into her curly blond hair, toussling it gently.

Standing frozen in her place, the woman felt like she was about to cry.

This wasn't him, it couldn't be him...But this touch was so familiar...

"...Ann..." A voice speaks behind her.

Is that his voice? His brand new voice? It's so...It doesn't even sound like it once did. It doesn't sound like him one bit. She doesn't say one word back to him.

Shifting his weight to the side, Al cocked his body into an angled position to look at her, his arms still around her waist.

"...You've changed, I see..." His eyes examine her, a finger twirling a lock of her hair. "You're hair was darker before...And I remember you wore lipstick...It made you look very nice..."

But she's not here to get complimented by this, this _stranger._

Pushing herself out of his grasp, Ann looked at him with a face of anger and hurt. She wanted to scream, or cry, or hit something, anything at all.

Words began pouring from her lips mindlessly.

"What happened to you!? I waited! I waited for...For so long to see you again! You just left and never spoke to me again! And then you come back like THIS! Why did you change so much, Al?! You were fine before! You didn't need anything different! Why did you..."

Her voice faltered as she felt her knees giving out.

"...Why did you leave me like that..." She sank to the floor. "Why Al, why?" Her voice quivered as she sat on her knees in front of him, trying with all her might to not break down into tears.

Al loomed above her with a surprised and saddened look, his shadow covering her quite well. She noted that his height hadn't changed one bit. He'd always been a giant of sorts with how tall he was.

For a long moment, he just stood and stared while taking in her words. He had known that she might be upset, but he hadn't figured she would be this much.

Slowly lowering himself onto his knees, the tall male knelt in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Ann just stared down at the floor with her body shivering. She didn't want to talk about this. In fact, what she really meant was she didn't wish to _face_ it.

"Ann...I...I'm sorry that I had to go for so long..." His voice, it annoyed her. She liked that old, odd voice better... "It's just, they wouldn't let me go until I was completed...They wouldn't let me talk to you..."

"You could have tried sneaking out..." She tried to put out as an option, but knew that he would never try it. He shook his head to confirm her thoughts.

"No...I couldn't. I was locked very far into the lab for a long time...I think they forgot me for awhile...But...They said they would change me so that I could be better..."

"But you were already good..." Ann choked, lifting her head just a tad. "You said yourself that people would love us..."

"I know that I did, but..." With a shrug, Al shook his head. "I was a prototype, Ann. We all go through that stage as Vocaloids...And sometimes, we have to accept that we're not going to stay that way for very long."

As much as she hated to admit it, Ann knew he was right. She remembered being a prototype, long before Al had even been created.

Though it was hard to remember what kind of person she had been at that time, she knew it wasn't the same one she was now.

"...You're so different now...I just..."

She shook her head and moved her hair back. When finally she bothered to look up, Al's smile was in her vision. That smile...It hadn't changed much itself.

It was still warm, and kind, and had the little quirk in his lip that he'd possessed since creation.

Perhaps his voice was different, and he looked like a stranger all around.

But in truth, Ann realized that this was still Al.

He was still Big Al in personality, and as long as that held true, then she would never truly lose him.

Inching closer, her short arms circled around his chest, still skinny enough to grasp. "...I'm sorry that I-"

"Don't be sorry...I missed you too, Ann..." Again, he brought her close until she pressed against his chest, and they remained this way for a long few minutes.

After so much silence, he felt it was time to mention it...

"...There is one thing I never was able to part with." Loosening his grip, Al backed up a bit before lifting some of the brown locks covering his forehead.

Ann felt a smile come over her face.

On his forehead were four, familiar golden stitches.

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The Al she loved so much was still there. She just needed to look a bit deeper inside to find him. But knowing that he would be here now, and that she would have a connection to someone...

It was all Ann had wanted.

Maybe one day she'll admit her feelings in words. Although, she's sure Al knows, and that he feels the same.

For now, she'll stick with their current title.

Sweet Ann and Big Al.

The Voices of PowerFX...


End file.
